Shadow Me! Speaking Practice About Weekend Plans

Hey there, I'm Emma from mmmEnglish. Today, I want you to imagine that you are about to share the most exciting news, and I'm gonna show you exactly how to do it, with the right words and the right energy. There are the words that you need to use to deliver your message, but your tone, your facial expression, your body language are all tools that you can use to create your message when you speak in English. This is something I want all of my students to realize, because when you start to use some of these other communication tools, you become more likable, more endearing, more relatable when you speak in English. People are not just drawn to your words, they're drawn to how you deliver them. What are you up to this weekend? This is one of the most common questions in English. Friends ask it, colleagues ask it, the acquaintance that you bump into in the lift asks it. Every single Thursday or Friday afternoon, all over the world, this question gets asked. Now, last week, I gave you an imitation practice for a quiet, uneventful weekend. This time, we're doing the complete opposite. I've actually got a really fun weekend coming up, and I want you to imitate not just the words that I'm saying, but I want you to match my energy, I want you to match my pace, and I especially want you to match my facial expression, because in English, when something exciting happens, your face says it before your words even come out, and it's such an important part of connecting with someone in a positive way. Now, this is going to be tricky for some of you. Not all languages or cultures rely on your face or your tone to deliver exciting news, and you might feel like my level of excitement is something that you can't reach, but I want you to know that if we practice like this together today, I am gonna pull you up, and you are gonna pull me down, and we're gonna meet somewhere in the middle, so this is gonna be a really great practice to bring some of that energy into your English. We are going to be training your mouth with your ears. You'll be listening, copying, feeling the rhythm. It's definitely not just the words that you say. It's also how you say them, and for this lesson especially, I really want you to focus on that. Before we start, let me quickly explain how this works. There are three steps to follow. First, you'll listen. You'll listen to the whole story once, all the way through. Then, we'll do it again. We'll use the same story, and this time, I'll pause after every line so that you can repeat it back to me out loud. Here, I want you to focus on the sounds and the individual words, and start loosening up your mouth muscles, but finally, step three is shadow me. This is the tricky one where you get to speak along with me in real time, no pauses. It's just like singing along to a song that you love. In step one, just listen. Listen for new words. Listen to the tone of my voice. Hey, Emma, what are you up to this weekend? I've got an exciting weekend coming up, actually. I'm flying to Darwin to surprise my mom. She has no idea that my brothers and I will be there, and I can't wait to see her face when she realizes that we've all flown in to surprise her. My mom's doing a car rally from Adelaide to Darwin. It's part of a big event to raise money for cancer research, so she's driving with a friend in an old bomb all the way through the middle of Australia. The whole trip is taking them around 12 days, and so we'll be there when they cross the finish line. Knowing my brothers, it's gonna be a pretty wild weekend, and I've never been to Darwin before, so it's gonna be epic. And I'm really looking forward to escaping the winter weather for a couple of days. What about you? Now, in step two, repeat after me. You'll hear me say the line, and then there'll be a pause after, so you can copy me exactly as you hear. Hey, Emma, what are you up to this weekend? I've got an exciting weekend coming up, actually. I'm flying to Darwin to surprise my mom. She has no idea that my brothers and I will be there, and I can't wait to see her face when she realises that we've all flown in to surprise her. My mom's doing a car rally from Adelaide to Darwin. It's part of a big event to raise money for cancer research, so she's driving with a friend in an old bomb all the way through the middle of Australia. The whole trip is taking them around 12 days, and so we'll be there when they cross the finish line. Knowing my brothers, it's gonna be a pretty wild weekend, and I've never been to Darwin before, so it's gonna be epic, and I'm really looking forward to escaping the winter weather for a couple of days. What about you? Now, try to shadow me. Speak along with me, following the rhythm and the intonation of my voice. Hey, Emma, what are you up to this weekend? I've got an exciting weekend coming up, actually. I'm flying to Darwin to surprise my mom. She has no idea that my brothers and I will be there, and I can't wait to see her face when she realises that we've all flown in to surprise her. My mom's doing a car rally from Adelaide to Darwin. It's part of a big event to raise money for cancer research, so she's driving with a friend in an old bomb all the way through the middle of Australia. The whole trip is taking them around 12 days, and so we'll be there when they cross the finish line. Knowing my brothers, it's gonna be a pretty wild weekend, and I've never been to Darwin before, so it's gonna be epic, and I'm really looking forward to escaping the winter weather for a couple of days. What about you? Great work. You got your speaking practice in today. I love that. So go on and tell me down in the comments, what are your plans this weekend, even if it's not quite as exciting as mine, or maybe it is. In fact, practising these simple everyday conversations is something that you can do easily inside the Hey Lady English speaking community. Click here to find out more about it, and come and join us if you're eligible. Thanks so much for joining me today, and I will see you in the very next lesson.